The Gathering 1098

Tragic news

We emerged from the transport circle into an ever increasing crowd of people. No sooner had we left the circle than others appeared behind us to take our place. I let out a cry of thanks to Bacchus for my survival and that of my comrades, and suggested a stiff drink in the tavern tent.

We exchanged tales while I downed my cider in two quick gulps. Catching sight of Hugo and a couple of members of the Bacchus across from the tent I took my leave and went out to greet them. A smug grin came across my features as I contemplated the congratulations I would receive.

All was not well. As I approached the group Hugo demanded to know what I was smiling about in an almost accusatory manner. Explaining to him that I had survived almost certain death at the hands of the unliving and thus felt entitled to feel a little smug he looked somewhat mollified. I could tell from the atmosphere an Hugo's uncharacteristic behaviour that something was wrong. Indeed, Hugo then informed me that Prince Elias (his nephew) had died, taken by the Hunter after the bid to save his life failed. Stunned by this sad, but not completely unexpected, news I could only mutter a few condolences. I wandered off to the guild to see what the outcome of the mission had been.

The result of the Scald Mission

The atmosphere at the guild was both jubilant and sad. I learned that the mission was a success, the rift having been sealed, hopefully for ever. In the process however we had lost Papewaio, who had stayed behind rather than leaving the staff. Also lost were Vrash, several of the Knights of Caer Dannon, and many members of other factions, the Wolves suffering the worst losses at the hands of the unliving.

The atmosphere of the tent was too confusing to learn anymore, so I left to head back to camp. Just as I was leaving the guild tent however I has surprised to see George, Dionysus and a couple of other Bacchus bodyguarding them. I stepped forward to greet them when George and Dionysus curtly demanded my weapons. I was unwilling to give them us, suspecting another plot to get me married. However I reluctantly complied to George's authority and handed them over. George then commanded me to kneel. I did so with reluctance, fully expecting to awake at a marriage ceremony after a summary clubbing.

However I was mistaken, George, using his authority as Baron of Londinium, dubbed me one of his Vassal Knights. Surprised and pleased at this sudden honour I joined George's escort and we headed back to camp after a brief wander around the market, George continually examining the club for any sign of its power awakening.

The Death of Elias

On the way back to the camp Dionysus informed me of the rough sequence of events leading to Elias's death. The quest had set off to Chapel Perilous, on a mission to obtain a potion that would heal the damaged pattern of Elias. What transpired there I do not know, but on their return they were met by someone who appeared to be Elias himself. Giving the potion to this individual they watched him drink heartily. He then laughed and, revealing himself to be a Fae concealed by Glamour, made good his escape. The questers were left with what transpired to be too little of the potion left to heal Elias.

When this became apparent the Hunter himself arrived at the camp. He offered Elias a choice, he could die now, freeing the patterns that sustained him from death through their connection to him, and giving his damaged pattern into the care of the Hunter. Alternatively, he could cling onto life, drawing more and more from those who patched his pattern until they and he died from the drain, however long that would take. Elias chose to sacrifice himself, giving his life into the arms of the Hunter, who bore it away.

On arrival at camp I was greeted by my sister Peridot. Apparently she had waited down by the ritual circle for my return, but must have missed me in the crowd. She had been rather worried, thinking that I might have been slain as so many others had been. I reassured her with a hug, then decided it was time to pay my respects to the dead Elias.

After a period of reflection in the tent set aside for Elias's remains I joined George and we got organised for a ritual practice. We were going to perform a ritual at 12:30 the next day, and needed to get the practice in, as we might not have time in the morning.

After some time in practice George called a halt and informed us that we were doing well, and that we would try to fit another practice in tomorrow morning.

Elbrath's fate

I took this opportunity to again head down to the guild, hoping to get some paperwork sorted out. The item procedure was in disarray when I arrived, and I realised that the current system needed some serious revision before it would be viable. However, as I was talking a commotion occurred outside the guild and then Elbrath was dragged inside, and placed on the floor. He was holding a staff in his hand and carrying a book.

I discovered that he had gone to ask the Mage's Guild for access to the Great Library of Magic, in an attempt to find references there to the lost tome "The Book of the Dead". The mages had granted him leave to try, but warned that many had not returned since some strange occurrences at the Library. Something to do with a "Guardian". In any case, Elbrath had returned, but not completely in one piece. In fact he was in two pieces, one half of his pattern being present inside the staff that he clutched to himself. He still lived, but appeared to be exhausted by his ordeal. Several Incantors used their healing spells on him, and he recovered somewhat, asking to be taken to the Harts camp. I led the way while a few guild members bore the stretcher (borrowed of the Healers Guild no doubt) to the Harts camp. Elbrath was placed in the side tent and attended by the Harts own Healers. Leaving him in their tender hands I wandered around the camp for a while, catching up on news.

Return of the winged horror

The atmosphere in the command tent was worse than the night before, doom and gloom hung everywhere. Reports arrived that Baroness Zircon, familiar member of the court, had committed suicide, blaming herself for the death of Prince Elias (she had been one of those that went off to rescue him). Martaine Quarrier looked fit to follow, and had to be talked down by Elidure throughout the night. As darkness fell numerous envoys again arrived from the other factions to pay their respects.

I spent some more time guarding the command tent entrance. Once again, the camp was attacked by the winged minion of Maar. This time it strode through the gate, shattering it as it came, and attacked along with a horde of minor undead. When the creature was first spotted I had to go and wake Tarn, who had fallen asleep in the brothel tent, his familiar location for the whole weekend.

Grabbing my sword I attacked the minor unliving, a mixture of ghouls, skeletons and zombies, leaving the major minor to the tender ministrations of Tarn and Alistar Crowley (wielding Excalibur). I was doing quite well against the creatures, but as I was backing away and changing my weapon to my club when facing a skeleton I was unexpectedly attacked from the rear. Feeling a flurry of blows bite through my armour I heard a human voice exclaiming "Oops" or some such comment. I had been struck down by my own side!

As I lay on the floor, my consciousness a hazy blur I decided that if I found out who it was they were going to get it right where it hurt. Not only had my own side downed me, but they didn't even bother to call for a healer, it was several minutes until a healer called Leri found me lying there and healed my wound.

The battle was approaching a climax and I spend the last few minutes of it guarding Leri's back as she healed several others. Of the creatures only the huge unliving remained, being slowly forced back across the camp. It seemed heavily wounded and started to retreat towards the gate, but a renewed storm of blows eventually downed it. It struggled even then, seeming unwilling to die (again), until eventually succumbing.

The Drow incident

Leaving the gate I returned to my position at the command tent, after checking that my sister was OK The next event of significance followed when a Drow envoy (which I assumed were from the Tarantulas) and her bodyguard demanded an escort. We were expecting another attack, this time from Golgamoth, as the pattern had been that when Maar would attack Golgamoth would also. Unfortunately the Drow demanded 12 people to escort her. This was a large number of people considering that an attack could happen at any time. Dionysus was given the task of organising something. He and I grabbed a number of people (three Hunters, a couple of Blood Elves, Jal'al, Peregrine and Sang) and negotiated the escort number down to 10.

We set off from the gate, the Drow apparently wished to go to the Ritual Circle, and then on to the Tarantulas camp. Immediately outside the gate we had a choice of way, either directly past all the camp of the other factions, or down a quieter route that led directly to the market. The Drow woman's bodyguard rejected the second route, claiming that he sensed "great danger" that way. Obviously his danger sense was well off, because no sooner had we headed down the other route than we were intercepted by a large group (about 40 or so ) people who demanded to know who we were. When we replied "Harts" they replied "that will do" and formed a battle line ahead of us.

Dionysus strode up to them an demanded to know what they were doing. They struck at him, but his Invulnerability defied their weaponry. The rest of us charged into the attack. The line facing us moved backwards under the force of our charge, and then firmed up as other joined it from the rear. The fighting died down as one of the line decided it might be a good idea to negotiate. They claimed to be from the Tarantulas camp and indeed, a number of them appeared to be Drow. Anyway, we demanded to know what they were doing attacking us, as we were escorting one of their Matrons back to their camp.

Unfortunately they then demanded that they be allowed to escort her instead of us, and our arguments that she had chosen us fell on deaf ears. Then the woman we were escorting made it clear to us that she was not of the Tarantulas, but rather an envoy of Drow from off-plane. This put things in a different light, especially when it became clear that the woman we were escorting was almost certainly the "Envoy" that the attacking forced appeared to be seeking. Giving up diplomacy we advanced past the enemy, taking advantage of their surprise at this move to gain some distance towards the transport circle.

We continually made it clear that an attack on us would be a direct contravention of the Gathering treaty, and kept moving forward. Eventually they tried to interpose themselves between us and our path, but at first we just forced them out of the way. It was only when they became three deep that they succeeded in stopping our advance. We now tried another tactic. The Drow's bodyguard became exceedingly angry, and then declared that, unaffected by the Ritual of Peace, any blows that he struck would inflict fatal damage. This was due to a magic amulet he bore, shaped like a rook. This gave our opponents pause again, and in the distraction thus caused we advanced past them.

They again tried to interpose themselves, but by this time we had succeeded in making it as far as the bridge. Outrunning the Tarantulas we made for the ritual circle, leaving the three hunters, Jal'al and one of the Blood Elves to hold off pursuit. The hunters blocked the bridge, and Jal'al attracted some of the pursuers before mingling with the crowd. In the meantime (at a most undignified flat run) we made it to the circle. Dionysus checked that it was free of impediment and the Drow used it to transport themselves away, presumably to their own plane. We gathered those we could find of the escort group and headed back to the camp. We were missing the Hunters and one of the Blood Elves, but they turned up fine sometime later.

Knives in the night

Upon our arrival we were met by a number of concerned people, who had heard that we had set off on the escort mission. Information had come to light just before we left that people were out to intercept the envoy, but we had left before it had made it to the gate. Assuring them that we had performed our task (facing down 40 people in the process) we settled around the fire for a drink or two.

After chatting with the two Blood Elves on the nature of their people (they grow thorns that stick out through their flesh, and continually bleed from the wounds thus made) I moved into the command tent to speak with George and Dionysus within. A short while later there was a commotion outside. Two members of House Karlennon (who names I am not aware of) had been killed, poisoned by assassins while investigating an intrusion in to the camp. This was the last event of significance that evening, the rest of it passed quietly, at least for those within the command tent. At about 4 in the morning I retired to my tent for the night.